Tabula Rasa Rising: Unexpected Consequences
by Aurora Lillith Wylde
Summary: This is based roughly during season 6 Sorry, I didn't realize that I had put in the wrong season . It is based off of the misuse of magick on Willow's part, and the effects it carries on the Scoobies. Feel free to send in ideas and comments! I live for it
1. Chapter 1

"The moon to the tide

"**The moon to the tide  
I can feel you inside**

I'm under your spell  
Surging like the sea  
Wanting you so helplessly  
I break with every swell  
Lost in ecstasy  
Spread beneath my willow tree"

She drew in power unbeknownst to herself. Her entire body shook, and a small silver light enveloped the Summers' residence, her home. She didn't realize the power she contained, especially when joined with her beloved. She just knew it felt good.  
As Willow came forward, from finishing her off, she had a small sweat on her forehead and a huge grin on her face. Tara looked at her and smiled back, never knowing the difference.

Back in the lair, Rack watched with a look of content on his face. He seemed to enjoy the union, even though he had nothing to do with it.  
'Little bitch doesn't know her own strength… Willow picks them all so well. If only they knew. A powerful magick has been used, and they don't even know it. Willow, you should have known better then to mess with her head…' Rack thought to himself, a huge smile spread across his face, and he shown his rotten teeth off. "Tabula Rasa, baby."

The next morning, Willow woke up, stared at the ceiling.  
'What have I done? I violated my own love's mind to get what I want. I looked to the dark arts, tainted her mind, her body, her flesh. Her aura was changed last night, and a power unleashed that everyone could feel. I felt it rush through me…' she wondered to herself, her thoughts being played across her face.

She got out of bed, and leaning over to kiss Tara, stopped, and looked at how content she was with everything.  
'She seems happy.'  
She walked out of the bedroom, leaving Tara to sleep. A quick glance at the clock on the way out, realizing it was almost noon. Walking downstairs, she found Buffy, sitting at the table, flipping through a Cosmopolitan while poking at the donut on her plate.  
"Buffy?" Willow said with an undertone of worry and sadness.  
"What's up Will?" Buffy replied robotically.  
"Buffy, I have a problem… I have been…" Willow began to tear up, her eyes just becoming wells that were overflowing.  
"Will? You can tell me anything, you know that?" Buffy said, putting down the magazine and pushing away her half-heartedly eaten donut.  
"I know." Willow said, looking at Buffy, her face turning red with embarrassment. "I have an addiction to magic." She stated, tears streaming down her face.  
"What do you mean Will?" Buffy asked.  
"I have been using it for everything. Getting dressed in the morning, avoiding red lights in traffic, getting things I need from other areas of the house, doing the dishes, getting what I want…" She started, and was quickly cut off.  
"What do you mean by getting what you want? I haven't seen a million dollars laying around in small unmarked bills, or Angelina Jolie in your closet…" Buffy asked.  
"Remember that argument I had with Tara?"  
"Yeah, the one you guys talked through…?"  
"Well, not exactly. There was this spell, Tabula Rasa… I used it on her. She doesn't remember that argument."  
"WILLOW!" Buffy said, covering her mouth.  
"I know… I know…" Willow said, furrowing her brow and putting her hand on her forehead, her red hair dangling down in front of her face.  
"Well, we know you have a problem. How do you reverse the spell?" Buffy asked, trying her hardest not to smash anything.  
"I am not sure." Willow said.  
"Well, let's go over it. There are consequences you know… what you put out will return to you, three fold, or so that old lady in The Craft said." Buffy joked.  
"Okay. Let me go get the book, and the ingredients, be right back." Willow darted back upstairs into her room, oh-so-stealthy like, and grabbed a book out from under the bed, and a shoebox full of herbs, candles, and crystals. She passed by Tara, looking at her, and smiling. 'She looks so peaceful.' She walked out, closing the door silently, and ran back downstairs, and to the kitchen. Before she entered, she stopped, hearing Buffy talking to someone.  
"She doesn't realize what she has done." A male voice said.

"What do you mean? She knows exactly what she did with that spell." Buffy retorted.  
"You felt it last night; the power surging through the air. You could taste the power, sweet…"  
"Like strawberries?" Buffy said.  
"That's my girl."

Willow realized who it was in the kitchen. Rack, the Dark magic dealer.  
"Shut up! She isn't your girl and never will be again!" Buffy Yelled. There was a crashing sound as something hit the wall.  
"You little girl. She is just as bad as me you realize; dabbling with forces she doesn't know about, ignoring the fine print. Last night, a major shift in energies; the fabric of life even, and you go siding with her." Rack said. "You do not know my power, the extent of it , so don't fuck with me, of that pretty little face will have more then just a bruise on it."  
Willow walked into the kitchen and put down her book and box, and looked at him. Her eyes flickered dark.  
"You came into my home and messed with my friends. And for what, might I ask?" Willow said, her voice deepening with a primordial rage.  
"Tails are twitchy girlie, and you can't reverse it now. You messed with the natural order of things, and now is time to pay." He replied, disappearing in a plume of energy, his final words echoing through her head.  
Willow looked at Buffy, and helped her get up off the floor, noting the red mark across her face.  
"He caught me off guard." She stated angrily. "Let's try to reverse this."  
Willow sat Buffy and herself down at the table and started reading through the text, pulling up the ingredients as she named them off.  
"Lethe's Bramble- the herb needed to aid in the forgetfulness spell. Said to grow along the river of Lethe in Hades and closely related to the rose family, a crystal to be used as the vessel to contain the memory, and a candle, kinda like a censure."  
"Okay, so what crystal did you use for the spell?" Buffy asked. Willow looted through her pockets and pulled out a dark green crystal. "Oh! Pretty! It's green!" she said.  
"It was not always green. It turned that way once the bramble was done burning. When the final embers went out, the spell took place and the memory of the argument was placed into the crystal." Willow said. "The only thing is, how do I get it back out?"  
"Do the spell backwards?" Buffy asked?  
"A few spells can be done in reverse, but in this case, no." Willow replied.  
"Are there any other instructions; or how about an 'Oops' Section?" Buffy asked, excitedly.  
"No." Willow said, staring at the crystal on the table. "The memory needs to come out, somehow though."  
"I GOT IT!" Buffy said, pounding her fist onto the crystal, crushing it. A plume of green smoke flew from the shattered pieces and the crystal returned to its plain color.  
"Well, that was easy." Willow said, closing her book.

Upstairs, Tara lay asleep, as the green smoke enveloped her; she woke up, and clenched her stomach. Her eyes shown a great emerald green and she began screaming. A few moments later, Willow came in through the door, Buffy soon in step.  
"Baby?" Willow said, reaching out her hand to push the hair out of Tara's face. Tara jerked away.  
"What did you do?" She said, glaring at Willow.  
"I… I…" Willow said, afraid of what might happen. Afraid to loose the control she had with the magics. Afraid of the inevitability of Tara's leaving. "I have a problem… I need help… Tara… I am so sorry!" Willow began strong, but ended in heavy sobs, sprawled out on the floor.  
Tara's look of anger quickly faded and was replaced with a look of pain. She again clutched her stomach, and it began to swell. Her moans turned into screams as the bulge grew to about a quarter size of a basketball.  
"OH MY GODDESS!" She yelled threw clenched teeth.  
"Tara!" Willow yelled, staring as her stomach grew at such a rate. She held her hand over her mouth, while her jaw hung slack. Buffy, backing up in case Tara's stomach exploded, had a look of fear across her face.  
It stopped when her stomach reached the size of a basketball, and Tara stood there, clutching her stomach and dripping in sweat.  
"I realize what you have done." Tara said. "You made me pregnant… but how?" She asked, looking for some sort of an explanation to the new abnormality.


	2. Chapter 2

"You're what?!" Willow said her jaw dropping to the floor.  
"Pregnant." Tara replied in a ferial anger.  
"But how…" Buffy began. "But how are you pregnant, and this quickly. Yesterday you looked fine, and today you look about 7 months along."  
"Must be magic of some…" Tara thought out loud. "WILLOW! How could you?! After everything… what Glory did to me, and then you go tampering with my mind using mystical means!" A tear slid down her face as she began recollecting everything that had happened.  
"Baby, I didn't mean… I just wanted the fighting to end, and I am getting help from Buffy now…" Willow began, stammering like her sophomore self again.  
"You're helping her?!" Tara screamed at Buffy. The look of complete terror that lined Buffy's face was priceless.  
"I was helping her. She came to me knowing she has a problem." Buffy stated.  
"This is too much to handle right now…" Tara started, tears flowing down her face.  
"Baby?" Willow asked.  
"This must be what Rack meant about unexpected consequences. That there is more to that spell then just forgetting." Buffy said.  
"Rack was here; but why?" Tara asked.  
"Because he felt a great power. A swift in the flow of natural order." Willow started. "I caused a change, and it altered a lot. I created something that shouldn't be. I need to talk to Giles."  
"Well, that is fine… I am here." A British voice chimed in.  
"Gotta love speed-dial. When Rack showed up, I figured we would need Giles to help us figure a few things out." Buffy said, holding up a silver cell phone.  
Tara stood in the doorway, hands groping at her stomach. She was pale, and had a bit of sweat on her forehead.  
"Are you feeling well?" Giles asked her, walking up to her.  
"No… I think it is just my body catching up to this new… condition." Tara said. "I am going to go lay down."  
"Okay. Dawn, see to it that Tara is comfortable, will you?" Giles asked.  
"Dawn is still in…" Buffy began, as Dawn walked out of the closed pantry.  
"Teenagers." Giles and Buffy said in unison.

Upstairs, Dawn had laid extra blankets on her bed and fluffed the pillows up a bit. She removed all the stuffed animals from the bed and lit an incense stick. She opened the window to allow the cool air to blow through and turned on the fan.  
"Wow Dawn. You really went all out." Tara said in the doorway.  
"Come in." Dawn said, staring at Tara's stomach.  
"You can ask questions about it you know." Tara said.  
"How… Why… How?" Dawn asked.  
"I am not sure, Dawnie. It just kind of happened. I was fine when I woke up and then I was just, BOOM… preggo."  
"Oh." Dawn said simplistically. "Well, get some rest, your looking pretty pale."

"Thank you." Tara said. "And Dawn?"  
"Yes Tara?"  
"Take this as a precaution. Don't meddle in magick."  
"I promise I won't." Dawn assured her, then closed the door and walked out.

"Well, it is obvious that the mind wiping spell that you used altered her body." Buffy said.  
"Yes, but how?" Giles said.  
"I have no clue. It is a MIND spell… not an alteration spell." Willow said, getting agitated that they hadn't found out the reason why.  
"Did you two do it last night?" Buffy asked.  
"Buffy!" Willow said, appalled.  
"Willow, understand that because you have misused your power, that you are not really entitled too much privacy. The smallest act could have caused this." Giles stated, doing his signature wiping of his glasses on his handkerchief  
"Yes, we did." Willow said. She had a look of shame on her face as she said it.

"Well, what's done is done, Will. You just have to hope that Tara will forgive you." Buffy said. "You have the best intentions, but go about things the easy way, and sometimes, the wrong way."  
"I know." Willow said. "I just hate seeing her upset, and thought that if I could just fix it…" Willow trailed off, eyes watery.  
"Well, you could have, but, you went about it wrong." Giles said simplistically. "Now we have to worry about a baby being brought into the world, and hopefully not demonic."  
"She could be carrying a demon baby?" Buffy said with her eyes wide.  
"Anything is possible with magick being involved. Like when Willow brought you back, the side effect was that the poltergeist came with. Willow used a spell to make Tara forget, and in turn, she is pregnant with, God knows what." Giles said, placing his glasses on the table. "I have a connection with a Wiccan Midwife. Would you like me to see if she is available?"  
"I would. But I also want to make sure Tara is okay with it." Willow said.  
"Good idea." Buffy replied to that. "Technically, this is both your demon baby." She slid out smirking.  
"Not helping." Willow said snidely, as she got up from the table and turned to leave.  
Walking up the stairs had never seen such a feat before. She held the railing with a trembling hand, afraid of what would happen when she went into the room. Her chin quivered a bit as she tried her best to compose herself. Finally at the top of the step, she looked forward toward the bedroom door and headed to it. She could smell incense burning.  
'Vanilla smells so good.' Willow thought with a smirk on her face. She continued, and reached for the door that had a black and white KEEP OUT sign on it. She turned the knob, and opened it.  
In the bed, Tara was fast asleep, her chest rising and falling with her deep breathing. She was on her side in the fetal position with a pillow between her knees and a bunch of blankets to her side, to which she was clutching. In her Pajamas, her stomach stuck out, obviously pregnant. Willow walked over to her and sat on the bed, barely moving it at all. A tear face down her face, and she wiped it away, while she reached out and moved a strand of blonde hair out of Tara's face.  
'How could I have?' Willow thought to herself, as she began crying a bit harder. The bed shook with her body as the cries turned into heavy sobs. However, she attempted to stay quite as though not to disturb Tara.  
This was to no avail, because she rolled over onto her back and stretched out her arms, and yawned, before opening her eyes. It took her a moment to calculate where she was, and why she looked bloated. A look of realization came across her face and she looked at Willow.  
"Tara…" Willow started, "… I am… so… sorry… I never… meant… to… hurt you…" Willow pushed out, between sobs.  
"I think you understand what I meant by bringing up the fact you were using to much now. And I am pregnant, with a baby now. Our baby." She said, running a hand across her stomach. "I am petrified. I don't know what to do Willow. I am afraid to do magick, because I think it would hurt the baby. I'm just not sure."  
"Giles…" She began, then taking a moment to compose herself, "Giles said he knows a Wiccan midwife. He wanted to know if you wanted to see her. Well, if we wanted to. I just… wanted to come up and ask you first."  
"That would be great." Tara said. "It's going to be difficult to work through this, you know?"  
"I know." Willow said, glumly.  
"I mean, I can't even sit up! Look at me! My feet are swollen, my fingers look like sausages, and I am starving." Tara said, with a smile on her face.  
"What about the fight…?" Willow asked.  
"That will be hard too, but we have to work on it. We have a child on the way, and it looks like she will be born really soon. I think I am about 7 months." Tara said.  
"Well, at least you won't have to deal with the WHOLE 9 month pregnancy. But there is something…" willow said, turning her head. "This was a magickal conception… so we can't be sure that the baby will be…'normal'."  
"I realized that already." Tara said looking at her.  
"Okay, so let's try to get that crane ordered so we could get you out of bed, and get some food in your bellies." Willow said.  
"Sounds like a plan." Tara replied, rocking herself back and forth, trying to get some momentum going so she could crawl out of bed. A few minutes later they were finally off the bed, and had walked back downstairs to the kitchen. Willow stood in front of the refrigerator with a puzzled look on her face, Tara sitting in a chair, with Buffy staring at her stomach.  
"Can I help you?" Tara asked, waving a hand in front of Buffy's face.  
"No, I'm fine." Buffy said, not moving. After a second, she realized what was just said to her, and looked up at Tara. "Sorry… I just…Wonder. You know? I'm probably not going to have kids and all. I just wonder what it's like."  
"What makes you think you aren't going to have kids?" Willow said from the refrigerator. She still carried a look of perplexities on her face.  
"Yeah Buff, why?" Tara said.  
"Well, for one. Look at my track record. I don't exactly have the best track record with men. Angel, Parker, Riley. I mean, first off, Angel isn't able to have kids, plus, hello, vampire."  
"Wasn't." Willow chimed in. Buffy looked at her with a puzzled look on her face. "I got an e-mail from Fred. Angel had a son with Darla somehow. His name is Conner."  
"O-kay." Buffy said, rolling her eyes. "Angel, isn't able to have kids with a human, a.k.a. me. Parker just used me and Riley ran off. My latest flings were with Spike, or all people, if we even wanna call him a person, that is."  
"Honey, you just gotta find the right guy. Or girl…" Tara began, throwing Willow a glare.  
"I think the milk just curdled." Buffy said, with a smile on her face.  
"Well, it's true. But you just have to find the right person. Then you could set up your home and have kids." Tara said.  
"There is also the fact that I am the Slayer. How am I supposed to raise a child and save the world from God-knows-what comes crawling out of the Hellmouth next?" Buffy said, sinking deeper into the chair.  
"Valid point." Willow said, closing the door and looking at everyone. "I am ordering a pizza."  
Giles came storming into the room, a huge grin on his face.  
"I got a hold of Artemis. She is available right now if you would like!" He said, holding his hand over the cell phone.  
"Well, since it seems I can pop anytime now, sure." Tara said, pulling a jar of pickles out of the pantry and pulling one out. Giles put the phone back up to his ear and retreated to the living room. That few moments of quite was brought to an abrupt halt when Xander walked in the front door.  
"MY LADIES!" He said excitedly, placing down a box of donuts on the counter. He hadn't realized the changes Tara had procured in the early morning hours. "How are you?!"  
"Pretty good, all things considered." Buffy said.  
"Remorseful yet excited. I have an addiction." Willow stated.  
"Inexplicably hungry and moody." Tara said, shifting her extra weight so it was hidden under the table.  
"Addiction? To what?" Xander said.  
"Magick. I have been using it all wrong and now it's bit me in the bud." Willow replied.  
"Oh. And Tara, what's wrong?" Xander asked.  
"I found out this morning that Willow used a mind altering spell on me, causing me to forget about the fight we had about her misuse of power, and then Buffy tried to undo what Willow did, only to complicate the matters a bit more."  
"Willow. How could you?" Xander said, shock written across his face in black permanent marker.  
"Okay, I already feel guilty enough as it is!" Willow said. "There isn't anything you can do to guilt but to add more guilt to make me feel worse." She finished.  
"Other then manipulating the fabric of life and hurting the one you love, yeah, you should feel guilty." Xander began. "What about the consequences. And what did you do to complicated the matters Buffy?"  
"I smashed the crystal used in the spell and it just kinda… changed Tara a little." Buffy said.  
"How?" Xander said, looking completely confused at all three women.  
"Sit down and I will tell you." Tara said. He did as he was instructed, and sat in the chair near the wall.  
"Okay…" Xander started.  
"Just don't freak out." Tara said, pushing her chair out and standing up all the way. She wrapped her hands around her stomach. "Surpirse."  
Xander sat there and stared. He opened his mouth and no sound came out. He blinked, and that way the only movement he made.  
"You're turning purple." Buffy said, slapping him on the back.  
"Ohmigod." Xander finally pushed out.


End file.
